US businesswoman ‘heartbroken’ by Boris amid affair claims
LONDON (AFP) — A US businesswoman at the center of controversy over whether Boris Johnson showed her inappropriate favoritism amid an alleged affair said yesterday she had been left “heartbroken” and “humiliated” by the British prime minister.
Jennifer Arcuri, who is accused of getting privileged access to foreign trade jaunts and grants when Johnson was previously London mayor, told Britain’s ITV he was treating her like “some fleeting one-night stand.”
The technology entrepreneur said the British premier, now campaigning for re-election, had rebuffed her requests “for advice” after the scandal erupted in September.
”I’m terribly heartbroken by the way that you have cast me aside like I am some gremlin,” Arcuri, addressing Johnson directly, told ITV’s Exposure program, according to excerpts given to the Press Association ahead of its broadcast this week.
”I don’t understand why you’ve blocked me and ignored me as if I was some fleeting one-night stand or some girl that you picked up at a bar because I wasn’t — and you know that,” she added. “I felt so disgusted and humiliated that I was told bigger things are at stake, never mind you.”
Johnson, who was London mayor from 2008 to 2016, is battling for a five-year term in Downing Street in next month’s hotly anticipated general election.
The show alleges the pair had an affair for more than four years, though Arcuri refused to confirm this.